The English football season has started, and the players and coaches are as usual competing to intimidate the referees, and blame them for their own inadequacies. Ferguson seems to have a complete hold on the administrators and is able to bully anyone and get away with it, and Mancini and Wenger occasionally sulk about this state of affairs, while trying to play the same game themselves. Who would be a referee?
Meanwhile, a wonderful experiment is taking place on my side of the Atlantic. I love NFL, and am in awe at the quality of the refereeing of the game compared with English soccer. But this season there has been a dispute between the referees and the owners/administrators, with the result that the regular officials are not available, and have been replaced by refs from lower tiers of the game.
The result has been chaos. The replacement refs are not bad, and they do their best, which arguably is a good as a premier league soccer ref does. But the sport is so intense and has so many marginal calls that the replacement refs cannot quite do the job required.
This weekend many of the results were plainly influenced by bad calls from officials. On Monday night, with half of the USA watching, the very last play of the game led to a terrible call which reversed the result of the game. A Seattle receiver was judged to have caught the ball when plainly he had pushed his opponent cynically, and still it was a Green Bay defender who had really secured the catch. First, two officials on the field made opposite rulings. Then, after a debate, the wrong one was sustained. Then the main ref reviewed the decision again using TV replay and still got it wrong. Pandemonium ensued, including loss of discipline by coaches and commentators.
We had been building up to this moment. Because the refs were not quite up to the task, players had started taking chances with the rules. The normal dialogue and balance of decisions was never established, and cheating became rife while decisions became random. After three weeks, we now have some games where almost every play seems to result in a penalty, yet where other blatant infractions are missed.
The corrosive effect is stunning to witness. Games are lasting up to half an hour longer (for all the penalties and reviews) which ruins TV schedules and entertainment. Clubs have started coaching their players to cheat, and coaches have started to vocally bully refs too. It is noticeable that results are more random than usual – after three weeks only three teams are unbeaten and only two have failed to win. The game is rapidly losing its integrity, week by week.
Does this matter? Well, once you accept that any sport matters, it does. Careers are made and broken by marginal decisions. And the whole edifice of the game requires a contented, credulous audience.
It is pretty clear who the winners are in all of this, and that is the regular officials, watching it all from their sofas at home. For the first time, their true value is being seen, by players, coaches, pundits and fans alike. People used to being derided are now seen for the wonderful professionals that they are. The league is suddenly very keen to resolve the dispute, and no doubt the referees will gain respect and fairer rewards as a result. Good for them.
It is a shame that it takes a strike and disintegration of the game for us to appreciate the most important and possibly most skilful people on the field. Perhaps premier league refs should take a leaf out of the book of their colleagues in the USA and get tougher.
Here are some thoughts for a manifesto for refs to present to the premier league (and/or UEFA).
Point One. A professional body and career ladder for referees, backed up by good pay (a fixed fraction of TV rights?), schools, and training.
Point Two. The professional body sets the rules, not the league, coaches or pundits. Too often we have seen ill-thought out changes leading to chaos. The offside law about interfering with play, the advantage law, and accidental hand ball are examples. Leave it to the pros.
Point Three. More refs per match, and maximal use of technology. Why not have five officials on and around the pitch, communicating with each other? Why not have refs in the booth judging calls in real time based on TV instant replay? I don’t buy the argument that play is continuous and could not apply technology without interrupting the flow. It takes a couple of seconds to view a replay. If the ref on the field is unsure, he can play a sort of advantage until he is sure. Cards can also be awarded (or rescinded) minutes after an offence.
Point Four. Post-match reviews and sanctions. Dissent, diving and other cheating should result in long bans, including for coaches, escalating for repeat offenders. Yellow and red cards should all be reviewed after the game and given a point value, leading to possible future suspensions. I don’t buy the argument that punters want to see stars perform. It is true, and, after a few weeks adjusting to the new realities, stars (and their coaches) will make sure that they comply to stay on the pitch. Coach bans are from their work, not just touchline bans.
In return for the above, refs agree to be judged and rewarded on their performance, which is openly published.
I believe this would take away a lot of the inconsistency, bullying, cheating and bad refereeing and improve the game for all. Soccer has all the money, but other sports (rugby, cricket, tennis) are far ahead in how they set and apply the rules. If the league disagree, then let the refs walk out for a few weeks, and see what happens then. Just like in the USA, everyone will be eating out of the hands of the refs after a few weeks of chaos.
There is also a wider lesson here beyond sports. Every part of life needs clear rules policed by good officials. If officials lose integrity, the whole activity suffers.
So, should we value the police more than we do? Tax officials? What about business regulators? Schumpeter argues (rather sadly) that all business leaders will cheat to the extent they can get away with it. So let us use technology, training, and sanctions to enforce a fair game. A fair game creates integrity, and, ultimately, competitive advantage. It is worth investing in.
In the meantime, the circus of the NFL moves forwards. I wonder what this weekend will bring. And meanwhile, in Chicago, the role model for all other sports as far as self-compliance is concerned will provide the wonderful entertainment that is golf’s Ryder Cup. I envisage having the TV on for quite a few hours this weekend.
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